A Washington Report states that the development of Diablo 4 was troubling, to say the least.

While the report confirmed that the game would be out on 6 June (as previously leaked), the road leading up to it was filled with periods of crunch. Said report includes testimonies from 15 current and former Blizzard employees, obviously speaking under anonymity. They all said that the game won’t come out on the June release date unless the team work “significant overtime”.

Also, the game’s been affected by gross mismanagement throughout the past five years, which could explain the game’s director being switched around. And also the fact that the game had seen numerous delays internally; the game was supposedly planned for a 2021 release, and even a December 2022 and April 2023 release date.

“We’re at the point where they’re not willing to delay the game anymore. So we all just have to go along and figure out how much we’re willing to hurt ourselves to make sure the game gets released in a good enough state.

You’re like, ‘Man, I feel like I’m working for the bad guys’. I feel like any work I do is tainted by this name.”

Other claims in the piece include an allegation that creative director Sebastian Stephien (ex-Witcher 3 creative director) rewrote the game’s script in 2019 and added disturbing sub-plots about sexual assault. One version of the game’s script was referred internally as “the rape version” where it repeatedly referred to the rape of one of the game’s female love interest.

Employees reportedly had to beg Blizzard leadership to change this version of the story, stating that the tale was “floated more than three years ago under different leadership as character backstory, not game content”, and “at that time was deemed inappropriate and went a different direction”.

“Rape has no place in the Diablo universe. It’s not a thing that we should be tackling because it takes a certain amount of nuance and a deft hand.”

The game’s release date and pre-order would be confirmed later in a few hours during The Game Awards 2022.